The present invention relates to a device for ordering bulk fed products, particularly confectionery.
The present invention is particularly suitable for use on wrapping lines for confectionery products in general, and sweets in particular, to which the following description refers purely by way of example.
On leaving the production machine, sweets are normally fed in bulk to a wrapping machine, immediately upstream from which they are arranged in an orderly sequence by means of an ordering device.
Known ordering devices normally comprise a ring with a succession of equally spaced peripheral pockets, each designed to receive a respective sweet; and a centrifugal disc inside and coaxial with the ring, for receiving a number of randomly arranged sweets off the production machine and spinning them into respective pockets on the ring.
On known ordering devices of the aforementioned type, the sweets, by virtue of being fed over the disc and into the pockets substantially continuously and exclusively by centrifugal force, engage the pockets at relatively high speed frequently sufficient to result in at least partial damage.